The last time the Dixie Chicks played Nashville was nearly a decade ago, in December 2006. The venue where they performed (which they’ll return to Wednesday night) was then known as the Gaylord Entertainment Center, and their documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing had hit theaters about one month earlier. The Chicks’ Accidents and Accusations tour that year did well by most standards, but sluggish ticket sales in some markets forced cancellations, and venues sold below capacity in others. The trek wrapped up before the end of the year in their home state of Texas, and the trio of Natalie Maines, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire mostly stayed out of the spotlight.
This was three years after “the incident,” in which Maines infamously told a London audience, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”
Conservative America responded with predictable outrage, with TV pundits shaming Maines & Co., and some overly patriotic lunatics even threatening the women’s lives. More surprising was the response from radio, which completely folded to the will of a few hot-headed, vocal listeners and stopped playing the group’s music entirely — resulting in the almost immediate disappearance of their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” from the country charts, not to mention all the hits that had helped them sell north of 20 million records at the time.
It can be tempting, if depressing, to imagine a world in which none of this ever happened. What would country music look like? Would there be more women getting airplay on country radio? Would bro-country even be a thing? Or would bro-country artists be succumbing to the slow fade, resigned to diminishing spins on terrestrial radio while a younger pack of stars takes the baton? Maybe it’s for the best that we’ll never know, but it’s still frustrating.
With apologies to Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts and Little Big Town, the Dixie Chicks are still country music’s last great group — one with the ability to write hits as well as reach outside the confines of the genre to pull in new fans, even with tunes as irreverent as “Sin Wagon” and “Long Time Gone.” The last time the Country Music Association’s coveted Entertainer of the Year honor went to a group was to the Chicks in 2000, following the success of their album Fly. Prior to that it was Alabama … in 1984.
The Dixie Chicks’ relationship to Nashville has been understandably chilly since that time. 2006’s Grammy-winning Taking the Long Way was recorded in Los Angeles with mostly rock musicians, and the sound reflected that. During their hiatus, Maguire and Strayer — both talented multi-instrumentalists as well as singers — formed a rootsy duo called the Court Yard Hounds. They released a couple albums, raising their families in the meantime. Maines was also busy with her family and activism, but released a solo album called Mother in 2014 that featured mostly rock covers.
Modern country radio doesn’t seem terribly different than it was 2003, playing it mostly safe except for dudes talking about drinking and getting laid. Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” was a massive crossover smash in 2015, but missed the top of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart because a few stations balked at any suggestion of lesbian love, even though the song was about something totally different. Similarly, Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” was roundly awarded and praised, but was too edgy to make radio pass on Cole Swindell or Chase Rice.
In significant other ways, however, much has changed since 2006. The country elected an African-American man to be president, and he’s spent eight years attempting to clean up some of the messes left by the administration Maines was criticizing back when. News now travels differently, with Twitter ensuring lightning-quick updates and increasingly short news cycles. If Maines were to make a similar comment about a president today, it might make a stink only until Kanye West had one of his periodic freak-outs. As an aside, Hank Williams Jr. and Ted Nugent have both said far worse things about President Obama and faced negligible amounts of backlash. Granted, they didn’t make those comments on foreign soil (a major sticking point for Chicks detractors), but they had far less to lose than the Chicks, and they’re also men, who (surprise!) can get away with saying pretty much anything.
Regardless, it’s wonderful to have the Chicks back in the game. Ticket sales for the current DCX MMXVI World Tour have reportedly been robust so far, and while a new album from the Chicks may not be in the cards just yet, having them on the stage and on the road is reason enough for celebration. With such massive implications looming for the presidential election, they definitely aren’t making nice: Performances of “Goodbye Earl” — where the protagonists gleefully murder an abusive husband — have featured depictions of Donald Trump with penciled-on devil horns and goatee.
It’s a perfect combination of the feminine smarts and take-no-shit attitude that took them from regional cowgirl-themed band to the highest peaks pop music has to offer. Which, come to think of it, is maybe just what Nashville (and the rest of the world) needs right now.
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